The chewing tobacco products on the market consist of plugs or packages of chewing tobacco. Both products include a mixture of tobacco leaf and tobacco casing, which may be comprised of a mixture of flavors, sweeteners and humectants. Tobacco casing is frequently used in chewing tobacco products. In the preparation of tobacco in the form of plugs, tobacco casing is mixed with the tobacco leaf and formed into a plug of the desired size. The loose tobacco product is a mixture of the tobacco leaf and tobacco casing usually sold in a package designed to retain flavor and moisture.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 865,026 and 904,521, both to Carleton Ellis, relate to tobacco preparations adapted for chewing purposes wherein the included tobacco is thoroughly sealed with a waterproofing masticable waxy body. The Ellis patents disclose, as their primary aspect, a tobacco substitute for weening and curing the habit of tobacco chewing. Use of the Ellis tobacco substitute is indicated to provide the user with the familiar taste of tobacco and its physiological effects, but to a lesser degree. U.S. Pat. No. 1,376,586 to Francis Schwartz describes a tablet of chewing tobacco completely covered with chicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,837 to Gary Kehoe et al describes a tobacco flavored chewing gum containing a high level of inert fillers. The chewing gum, further, includes at least 10% air voids entrapped in the matrix which become filled with moisture on chewing, causing an increase in the volume. U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,217 to Ove Birger Ferno et al relates to a chewable smoking substitute containing nicotine in a gum base and a water-soluble buffering agent to maintain the pH of the saliva at about 7.4.
The prior art is considered to suffer from various problems and disadvantages. Possibly foremost of the problems and disadvantages relating to the use of the product are the inability to maintain integrity during mastication, and the products are found generally not to provide a smooth chew and unvariable taste characteristics.
In addition to the above prior art, chewing compositions comprising nicotine per se, bound to a cationic exchanger and embodied in a gum base, have been proposed. The purpose of these compositions, also, is to provide a substitute for tobacco use and/or smoking. These compositions, comprising nicotine per se in a sorbed state embodied in a high percentage of gum base to facilitate slow release under chewing have also been proposed recently. In these latest compositions the nicotine can be present as a free base or in salt form, as a complex or sorbed.